How do I even start to talk about a game that's a remake of something that has actually been with me for nearly 20 years? I may have started the series with REmake on the GC, but I think that after my dumb kid brain was disappointed with RE2 and 3 just being PS1 ports for the Gamecube (I now truly appreciate being able to even play those on GC back then) RE4 shattered my worldview to a degree.
You know how everyone has that one piece of media that they see it and then they go OH MY GOD...THAT'S IT! THAT'S IT!!! THAT'S WHAT I WANT!!! Well for film that was watching Jurassic Park as a tiny little five year old. For video games and perhaps even my taste in horror that was Resident Evil 4 a mere five years later. A nonsensical silly over the top gorefest with a main character that talks back at the villains and they just as much talk shit right back. If anything RE4 to a degree is probably what helped me get into DMC and Tokusatsu as the dynamic between Leon and the Los Illuminados higher ups in this feels very similar to those. Something 2021's Village would push even further into a full on Jojo's Bizarre Adventure type villain squad. Getting back on track, even through all of this Resident Evil 4 kept the atmosphere of a genuine horror experience. The often mocked very brown look of the game indicative of the mid to late 2000s of gaming in this case actually helps permeate that atmosphere of dread and decay that for me personally the only other RE to really capture this is REmake itself.
So yeah, we're going the deeply personal route for this. People may not think the same thing as me about original RE4, but these have always been my feelings on it. It's a dreadful atmosphere of rot that is broken up by the at the time revolutionary combat that completely redefined the third person shooter and to this day every third person game for better or worse imitates it. It is woven into the very DNA of game development. Shinji Mikami may arguably be a shitty terrible writer and can release misses that feel like he was just sleeping on the job, but it can't be overstated the impact original RE4 left. Both him and the dev team involved truly show their craft after years and years of trial and error to get what could arguably be called the ultimate blending of action and horror out on store shelves. Well, with that being said I'm happy to say that despite some minor issues the remake of Resident Evil 4 captures the very spirit of that original game. To such a T it may even be sillier than the original at times.
Holy fuck I can finally hype up this shit cause godfuckingdamn Capcom, holy fuck!!!
Yeah I beat the game like 2 weeks ago, but all this took so long not cause of how long this review is. It's because I legit could not take my hands off the controller and I still think I have a playthrough or two in me before I'm ready to put it down for good.
RE4R may have some annoying bits to it such as the weight and momentum Leon now has, the bullet spread which can be super annoying on an initial play-through as you learn the games mechanics and how to exploit them, ladders no longer having invincibility frames, and hoping to god you don't get hit by an enemies attack while you're getting back up from a particularly strong one mashing the attache case button to open it up and heal. Putting those things aside? The devs somehow managed to make another nearly perfect game after all this time. I would go as far as to say as someone who loves the atmosphere of horror films like the The Witch or Black Mountain Side this game oozes that dread and I honestly prefer the more horror heavy (yet still campy) tone this game goes for. Perfectly reflected no less by its heavy use of cult and folk horror visuals perfectly backed up by the darker and moodier lighting (even during the day!), and those areas with HDR? Lord all mighty there are parts of this that look so fucking real. My 10 year old brain would never be able to comprehend RE4 looking like this. This may be the first game of the current generation where I look at it and actually go "Whoa...". The gore too, good lord the fucking gore. Never ever ever did I think I would get hyped over blowing some old granny in half with a shotgun. Yet here we are! It's the sickest shit. ALSO, I DO NOT CARE IF THE STRAND HAIRS DON'T AESTHETICALLY MATCH OR SLIGHTLY HAMPER PERFORMANCE THE ANIME HAIR STAYS ON PLEASE GOD I HOPE MH6 HAS IT.
But a game's visuals can only be so good. They won't save it if it plays like dogshit. Oh boy, well hustle your buns bitches cause this game plays like a fucking dream. Once you get used to the bullet spread and have learned the games layout and enemy positioning this becomes just as snappy as original RE4. The new quick-switch feature to go from handgun headshot, spinkick some motherfuckers, to shotgunning dudes apart YES FUCK YES THIS IS THE SHIT. I was screaming multiple times. Becoming aware of the fact that this isn't just an action horror game no more, but a full on survival horror shooter where item management matters beyond making space in your attache case was eye opening to how easy it is to turn RE4 into a genuine survival horror game. Every time a big fight left me with just barely enough to scrape by, but having the confidence of knowing you can fight back against the enemies filled me with so much determination to keep going on my initial hardcore difficulty play-through. Which let me just say that "For players who have played Resident Evil 4 (2005)" shit is a goddamn lie! This is a completely different beast that is way harder than that game!
The parry system rocks too. As someone who has gotten real tired of the weapon durability meme that's blown up in a post BOTW world I found this game to handle it really well with all the different kitchen and boot knives you could find, plus the durability is really lenient and once you get the primal knife? Fuggedabout it, you are goddamn Rambo. One of those things I know I'll miss going back to the original game.
Of course you can't talk about RE4 either without mentioning the elephant in the room that is Ashley being a nearly game long escort mi-she's good. As someone who once they figured out the game well as a kid and has done non armored fresh Pro runs, Ashley is so easy to take care of this time around that the real challenge comes more from her being taken than her getting killed by an enemy attack meant for you. Her no longer being attached to the hip and DUCKING while running out of the way of your shots is so good it's one of these things this game does that I know I'll also miss as well going back to the original. So yeah that's been improved by a milestone. You just know they really want you to like her this time around with all the cosmetic gifts you can find for her and how she helps in some fights. Also her interactions with Leon are so cute in this holy fuck she is such a dork sometimes and Leon is such a fucking shonen anime meathead one track mind gaylord I HATE AND LOVE THIS STUPID IDIOT!
Speaking of characters being reworked or made better or that kept their original spirit well. Luis's character expansion as well is awesome, what a bro. Really I think mostly every character has been reworked fantastically, love the new tragic take on Mendez and psychotic demon child projection fueled Salazar. Saddler who takes more of a backseat here compared to the original is such a great hateable motherfucker for anyone (now it's my turn to project!) who hated having to go to church and listen to that shit. When that facade of his finally breaks during the final battle I was cheering I was fist bumping and screaming while failing to avoid his Prometheus black goo attacks. I haven't talked about Ada cause everyone has already said everything and I think after all the dumb bullshit I'd rather not be lumped in with retards just for saying "Yeah her VAs performance wasn't that good." Also I'm waiting for Separate Ways which I think this time around can truly be something special instead of some watered down TPS take on RE4.
So I held back on this for a while cause I knew it would be big and long and almost feel like incoherent fanboy rambling plus the game is fun and hard to put down, but also The Mercenaries Mode wasn't out until a few days ago and it fucking rules. Just so much fun. Loved Raid Mode in the Revelations games sure, but I was extremely disappointed with Village's take on Merc Mode so to see it back to its former glory and be funner than ever has made me extremely happy. I have nothing but good things to say about it. Love to cheese shit as Hunk and I cannot wait for Ada and Wesker to be added.
It's kind of funny that as a sort of strange 2000s nostalgia starts to hit me over the past few weeks after seeing a clip of Elfen Lied making the rounds on the shitty bird app that the RE4 remake releases. A game that captures what my small babby brain's imagination in 2005 imagined the game looking and feeling like. Will RE4R replace the original? No, I think this is a case of the original being such a sacred cow for Capcom that it will always be milked even after this game's release. It's also not revolutionary like original RE4 that straight up changed an entire media landscape. RE4R shouldn't be thought of as a replacement, it should be thought of as a celebration of RE4 and how its mechanics have evolved over the near two decades since its release. It is a truly sublime and alternative take that reminds you of the magic you felt with that original game. RE4R isn't perfect and neither is RE4, both have things that bother me belonging to the era they were made in or choices the developers made, but they are both I would argue equally as strong games. Only RE4 could challenge RE4.
On a final note, as someone who loves films and games equally despite how I may meme about them, something that I've come to really like about this recent string of REmakes is that they feel like the developers are able to bring to life something that truly looks and feels like the James Cameron and George Romero films that inspired RE. Doing that while capturing the blockbusters of their respective era for me personally justifies their existence. RE2 and 3 capture late 90s blockbusters, and now RE4 captures mid 2000s blockbusters. In conclusion that means the only thing left to do is to bring back baggy jeans with chains, open a bag of Doritos 3D, hit play on Meteora and kill some more mutated Spaniards while thinking of simpler times.
You know how everyone has that one piece of media that they see it and then they go OH MY GOD...THAT'S IT! THAT'S IT!!! THAT'S WHAT I WANT!!! Well for film that was watching Jurassic Park as a tiny little five year old. For video games and perhaps even my taste in horror that was Resident Evil 4 a mere five years later. A nonsensical silly over the top gorefest with a main character that talks back at the villains and they just as much talk shit right back. If anything RE4 to a degree is probably what helped me get into DMC and Tokusatsu as the dynamic between Leon and the Los Illuminados higher ups in this feels very similar to those. Something 2021's Village would push even further into a full on Jojo's Bizarre Adventure type villain squad. Getting back on track, even through all of this Resident Evil 4 kept the atmosphere of a genuine horror experience. The often mocked very brown look of the game indicative of the mid to late 2000s of gaming in this case actually helps permeate that atmosphere of dread and decay that for me personally the only other RE to really capture this is REmake itself.
So yeah, we're going the deeply personal route for this. People may not think the same thing as me about original RE4, but these have always been my feelings on it. It's a dreadful atmosphere of rot that is broken up by the at the time revolutionary combat that completely redefined the third person shooter and to this day every third person game for better or worse imitates it. It is woven into the very DNA of game development. Shinji Mikami may arguably be a shitty terrible writer and can release misses that feel like he was just sleeping on the job, but it can't be overstated the impact original RE4 left. Both him and the dev team involved truly show their craft after years and years of trial and error to get what could arguably be called the ultimate blending of action and horror out on store shelves. Well, with that being said I'm happy to say that despite some minor issues the remake of Resident Evil 4 captures the very spirit of that original game. To such a T it may even be sillier than the original at times.
Holy fuck I can finally hype up this shit cause godfuckingdamn Capcom, holy fuck!!!
Yeah I beat the game like 2 weeks ago, but all this took so long not cause of how long this review is. It's because I legit could not take my hands off the controller and I still think I have a playthrough or two in me before I'm ready to put it down for good.
RE4R may have some annoying bits to it such as the weight and momentum Leon now has, the bullet spread which can be super annoying on an initial play-through as you learn the games mechanics and how to exploit them, ladders no longer having invincibility frames, and hoping to god you don't get hit by an enemies attack while you're getting back up from a particularly strong one mashing the attache case button to open it up and heal. Putting those things aside? The devs somehow managed to make another nearly perfect game after all this time. I would go as far as to say as someone who loves the atmosphere of horror films like the The Witch or Black Mountain Side this game oozes that dread and I honestly prefer the more horror heavy (yet still campy) tone this game goes for. Perfectly reflected no less by its heavy use of cult and folk horror visuals perfectly backed up by the darker and moodier lighting (even during the day!), and those areas with HDR? Lord all mighty there are parts of this that look so fucking real. My 10 year old brain would never be able to comprehend RE4 looking like this. This may be the first game of the current generation where I look at it and actually go "Whoa...". The gore too, good lord the fucking gore. Never ever ever did I think I would get hyped over blowing some old granny in half with a shotgun. Yet here we are! It's the sickest shit. ALSO, I DO NOT CARE IF THE STRAND HAIRS DON'T AESTHETICALLY MATCH OR SLIGHTLY HAMPER PERFORMANCE THE ANIME HAIR STAYS ON PLEASE GOD I HOPE MH6 HAS IT.
But a game's visuals can only be so good. They won't save it if it plays like dogshit. Oh boy, well hustle your buns bitches cause this game plays like a fucking dream. Once you get used to the bullet spread and have learned the games layout and enemy positioning this becomes just as snappy as original RE4. The new quick-switch feature to go from handgun headshot, spinkick some motherfuckers, to shotgunning dudes apart YES FUCK YES THIS IS THE SHIT. I was screaming multiple times. Becoming aware of the fact that this isn't just an action horror game no more, but a full on survival horror shooter where item management matters beyond making space in your attache case was eye opening to how easy it is to turn RE4 into a genuine survival horror game. Every time a big fight left me with just barely enough to scrape by, but having the confidence of knowing you can fight back against the enemies filled me with so much determination to keep going on my initial hardcore difficulty play-through. Which let me just say that "For players who have played Resident Evil 4 (2005)" shit is a goddamn lie! This is a completely different beast that is way harder than that game!
The parry system rocks too. As someone who has gotten real tired of the weapon durability meme that's blown up in a post BOTW world I found this game to handle it really well with all the different kitchen and boot knives you could find, plus the durability is really lenient and once you get the primal knife? Fuggedabout it, you are goddamn Rambo. One of those things I know I'll miss going back to the original game.
Of course you can't talk about RE4 either without mentioning the elephant in the room that is Ashley being a nearly game long escort mi-she's good. As someone who once they figured out the game well as a kid and has done non armored fresh Pro runs, Ashley is so easy to take care of this time around that the real challenge comes more from her being taken than her getting killed by an enemy attack meant for you. Her no longer being attached to the hip and DUCKING while running out of the way of your shots is so good it's one of these things this game does that I know I'll also miss as well going back to the original. So yeah that's been improved by a milestone. You just know they really want you to like her this time around with all the cosmetic gifts you can find for her and how she helps in some fights. Also her interactions with Leon are so cute in this holy fuck she is such a dork sometimes and Leon is such a fucking shonen anime meathead one track mind gaylord I HATE AND LOVE THIS STUPID IDIOT!
Speaking of characters being reworked or made better or that kept their original spirit well. Luis's character expansion as well is awesome, what a bro. Really I think mostly every character has been reworked fantastically, love the new tragic take on Mendez and psychotic demon child projection fueled Salazar. Saddler who takes more of a backseat here compared to the original is such a great hateable motherfucker for anyone (now it's my turn to project!) who hated having to go to church and listen to that shit. When that facade of his finally breaks during the final battle I was cheering I was fist bumping and screaming while failing to avoid his Prometheus black goo attacks. I haven't talked about Ada cause everyone has already said everything and I think after all the dumb bullshit I'd rather not be lumped in with retards just for saying "Yeah her VAs performance wasn't that good." Also I'm waiting for Separate Ways which I think this time around can truly be something special instead of some watered down TPS take on RE4.
So I held back on this for a while cause I knew it would be big and long and almost feel like incoherent fanboy rambling plus the game is fun and hard to put down, but also The Mercenaries Mode wasn't out until a few days ago and it fucking rules. Just so much fun. Loved Raid Mode in the Revelations games sure, but I was extremely disappointed with Village's take on Merc Mode so to see it back to its former glory and be funner than ever has made me extremely happy. I have nothing but good things to say about it. Love to cheese shit as Hunk and I cannot wait for Ada and Wesker to be added.
It's kind of funny that as a sort of strange 2000s nostalgia starts to hit me over the past few weeks after seeing a clip of Elfen Lied making the rounds on the shitty bird app that the RE4 remake releases. A game that captures what my small babby brain's imagination in 2005 imagined the game looking and feeling like. Will RE4R replace the original? No, I think this is a case of the original being such a sacred cow for Capcom that it will always be milked even after this game's release. It's also not revolutionary like original RE4 that straight up changed an entire media landscape. RE4R shouldn't be thought of as a replacement, it should be thought of as a celebration of RE4 and how its mechanics have evolved over the near two decades since its release. It is a truly sublime and alternative take that reminds you of the magic you felt with that original game. RE4R isn't perfect and neither is RE4, both have things that bother me belonging to the era they were made in or choices the developers made, but they are both I would argue equally as strong games. Only RE4 could challenge RE4.
On a final note, as someone who loves films and games equally despite how I may meme about them, something that I've come to really like about this recent string of REmakes is that they feel like the developers are able to bring to life something that truly looks and feels like the James Cameron and George Romero films that inspired RE. Doing that while capturing the blockbusters of their respective era for me personally justifies their existence. RE2 and 3 capture late 90s blockbusters, and now RE4 captures mid 2000s blockbusters. In conclusion that means the only thing left to do is to bring back baggy jeans with chains, open a bag of Doritos 3D, hit play on Meteora and kill some more mutated Spaniards while thinking of simpler times.